"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Voltaire’s thinking about the fundamental nature of free speech should not be controversial. In today’s political climate, few are willing to stand up for, let alone “defend to the death,” speech which they disapprove of.
The Founding Fathers created our nation based on respect for the natural rights of its citizens. One of the most important of those natural rights is the freedom of speech. James Madison recognized that individuals have the right to freely form their own opinions, stating, “the opinions of men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by their own minds cannot follow the dictates of other men.” Inherent in the right to have an opinion is the right to express that opinion. Thomas Jefferson explained that “there are rights which it is useless to surrender to the government and which governments have yet always been found to invade. These are the rights of thinking, and publishing our thoughts by speaking or writing.” The recognition of free speech as a natural right led to free speech being preeminently enshrined as the First Amendment to the Constitution.
However, free speech has increasingly come under attack, not by the government but by a growing intolerance of ideas and a lack of interest in rational debate. Joshua Katz, a professor at Princeton University, criticized an open letter to the Princeton administration that was signed by over 350 faculty members which made forty-eight demands to address “anti-Black racism” at Princeton. He published a piece in response to the letter titled “A Declaration of Independence by a Princeton Professor.” In response, the President of Princeton University accused him of failing to use his right to free speech “responsibly.” Princeton alumni and students called out on Twitter for the University to take action against Katz. His colleagues in the department condemned his remarks. A spokesman for the University stated that the Princeton administration would “be looking into the matter further.” Fortunately for Katz, the administration chose not to investigate. While this was good news for Katz’s tenure at the University, the damage had already been done to his reputation.
The attacks on free speech are also affecting journalism. New York Times editor Bari Weiss recently resigned, leaving a scathing letter as her final discourse. Weiss joined the New York Times after the 2016 election, and hoped to bring new voices to the Times’ editorial page. Instead, her opinions made her “the subject of constant bullying by colleagues” who disagreed with her views. Those colleagues did not engage in a rational debate but instead called her “a racist” and “a Nazi” (which is particularly perplexing as Weiss is Jewish). As a result of the “hostile work environment” described by Weiss, “self-censorship has become the norm” at the New York Times.
Those attempts to curb free speech are not isolated incidents but are part of a larger trend. As the disdain for free speech increased, many intellectuals, who had previously stood idly by, have begun to take notice. In early July, a group of moderate and center-left professors, journalists, writers, and artists signed “Harper’s Letter on Justice and Open Debate”. The letter addresses the need for “the free exchange of information and ideas,” and recognizes the recent trend that shows “a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments.” Those trends have weakened our norms of “open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity.” The drafters argue that the “democratic inclusion,” which they want to attain, can only be achieved “if we speak out against the intolerant climate that has set in on all sides.”
There is also an increasing intolerance of ideas among college students. A May 2019 College Pulse / Knight Foundation survey found that 51% of college students believe that shouting down speakers or trying to prevent them from talking is either always acceptable or sometimes acceptable and 15% say it would be acceptable to use violence to stop a speech, protest or rally. Students are willing to shut down speech, some advocating violence if necessary, but are unwilling to listen to ideas they disagree with. That unwillingness to respect others’ opinions leads to students being afraid to engage in discussions. In the same survey, 68% of college students (including 54% of Republicans and only 15% of Democrats) said their campus climate precludes students from expressing their true opinions because their classmates might find them offensive. This is consistent with a July 2020 CATO Institute poll finding that nearly two-thirds (62%) of Americans say the political climate these days prevents them from saying things they believe because others might find them offensive.
The American Civil Liberties Union recognizes that freedom of speech is paramount on college campuses. According to the ACLU, restrictions on speech by colleges “deprive students of their right to invite speech they wish to hear, debate speech with which they disagree, and protest speech they find bigoted or offensive.” Additionally, the ACLU believes that “more speech — not less — is the answer most consistent with our constitutional values.” A 2017 CATO Institute survey found that 67% of Americans agree that free speech ensures the truth will ultimately prevail. Many colleges and universities have moved to protect free speech by adopting the "Chicago Statement" which commits to “free and open inquiry in all matters” and “guarantees all members of the University community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn”
As Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt explain in their 2015 article on “The Coddling of the American Mind”, college is a place where we need to learn “how to think rather than what to think.” Lukianoff and Haidt explain that listening to the opinions of others “sometimes leads to discomfort, and even to anger, on the way to understanding” but avoiding that discomfort “teaches students to think in a very different way” and “prepares them poorly for professional life, which often demands intellectual engagement with people and ideas one might find uncongenial or wrong.” College students should be open to discussion and debate and should heed Voltaire's admonishment from his Essay on Tolerance to "think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.”